Marketing Companies Anniston AL

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You will find informative articles about Marketing Companies, including "Hire the Right Marketing Company" and "8 Common Marketing Mistakes".
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Please scroll down to find the local resources in Anniston, AL that can help answer your questions about Marketing Companies.

8 Common Marketing Mistakes

Advertising can be one of the fastest ways to market and grow your business or it can be one of the quickest ways to go out of business. With the right ad you can attract clients to your business and increase your profits. With the wrong ad you can spend your way into bankruptcy.

To grow your business you need to attract the attention of your prospects, advertising can help you do so if used correctly. Unfortunately, many small businesses owners waste thousands of dollars on advertising efforts that only achieve minimal results.

If you want to get the most from the money you spend to promote your products and services, make sure to avoid these common mistakes.

Focusing on Your Products and Services

If you want to get the attention of your prospects, speak to their needs and wants. Your prospects' primary concern isn't that you've been in business for 25 years; it is do you know the problem they want to solve. Use your ad to identify at least one common problem of your prospects and the benefit of using your product or service.

Having a Weak Marketing Message

All to often you hear ads and it takes some thought to figure out what they are even promoting. Make sure your advertisement includes a 7-10 word description of whom you serve and the problems you solve so people who read or hear your ad know how you can help them.

Using the Wrong Words

A word here, a phrase there can change your response rate by hundreds of percent. When you spend money on advertising, first test a number of versions of your copy to identify the one that works best. Just by revising her ad copy so it was client and problem centered, I helped one small business owner achieve her best month in sales ever.

Missing Motivation

Most ads miss the mark in moving prospects to action. If you want to prompt prospects to visit your web site or your store or to contact you, include an offer that motivates them to do so.

Lacking in Frequency

Some people make spur of the moment buying decisions, but most need to become familiar with your services and products, and this takes time. If you want your advertising to work, you need to ensure that your prospects see or hear it regularly.

Web Sites that Don't Move Prospects to Action

Many small business owners direct prospects to a web site where they have more extensive content covering available services and products. I constantly get calls from people who have been successful at attracting prospects to their web site, but generate few sales.

Once prospects get to your web site make sure the content and visual organization moves them to take the action you want them to. Whether it is providing them with ample opportunities to fill in your service inquiry form, or including a subset of your product catalog in your web page navigation bars, help prospects move to client and customer status.

Hire the Right Marketing Company

by Cathy Taylor

Hiring a good marketing firm is critical to the success of any business. Here are some things to look for.

First, it's important to understand the distinction between a company that limits itself to advertising and one that operates as a consultant to your business and has developed marketing expertise. The advantage of an advertising firm is they will easily take direction and implement direct mail programs, print ads, and/or radio and television commercials. The downside is your small company may need more diversity and direction. Hiring a company that partners with you because as well as brings years of marketing experience to the table is ultimately more valuable. The upside is your company will get the exposure it needs to create more sales and profit, and you'll learn more about marketing along the way.

In today's world, you have all the options of print media as well the vehicles that fuel e-commerce. First decide if your firm can benefit from an online marketing plan, then factor that into your budget and allocate enough for print and/or internet-related programs. Which brings us to a critical factor in this process - your budget.

Budget

Successful companies typically spend 22 percent of their marketing budget on direct marketing for their products and services. To determine how you will spend your marketing dollars, you need to determine your short- and long-term goals as well as what results are willing to accept? For example, if you want to secure five new projects before the end of a period, look back historically and estimate how many contacts your sales people make before getting one hot lead. Of those, how many do you estimate you can close?

What we want here is averages, not the exception to the rule. With these numbers you can determine how many direct mail pieces you'll need to deliver based on a conservative return on investment (ROI) using an estimate of .5 to 1 percent. Of course you'll increase that ROI with disciplined follow through such as phone calls. But knowing the amount of money you can afford to spend on reaching your number goal leads you to the next step - finding a company that can deliver on time and on budget.

Industry-Specific Strategy

A good marketing firm understands strategy and differentiation. Strategy is using the right tools to get the desired results. That includes positioning and a smart marketing communications programs. Are you branding and/or generating leads? Does your prospective firm understand the difference?

There is a significant timesaving when you hire a firm that has industry-specific experience because the learning curve is reduced considerably. If they have worked in your industry, they have also discovered some of the promotion pitfalls along the way and are likely to know how to get more results faster.

Most important in any business relationship is their ability to listen. Do they understand your target market? Can they consi...

This page provides relevant content and local businesses that can help with your search for information on Self Branding Firms.
You will find informative articles about Self Branding Firms, including "The Art of Self Branding".
Below you will also find local businesses that may provide the products or services you are looking for.
Please scroll down to find the local resources in Anniston, AL that can help answer your questions about Self Branding Firms.